Saturday, January 21, 2006

100 years ago

The telephone was undoubtedly an invaluable asset to the twentieth century businessman. However, the impatient and irritant telephone user, in his hurry to transact some little item of business, found, on calling up the Exchange, that he had been forestalled. Someone had been connected to the person with whom he wished to converse, and the one word "engaged" from the laconic guardian of the wires was sufficient to unnerve and draw from him a torrent of abuse upon the innocent, unseen worker at the Exchange and the telephone service in general. He did not consider that, were it not for the telephone, the business, which he was so keen to do, might have taken him several hours or perhaps a whole day, and if he were only a little more philosophic and recollected that the system was not inaugurated for his own personal use, he would find not only that he had saved time, but that the alleged inefficiency paled before the general usefulness of the service.

50 years ago

Rin Tin Tin started it, Lassie went too far with it, and Walt Disney restored the balance between the actual and the idealised dog's life as he reaped a rich harvest of humour from the canine world in Lady and the Tramp, the first full-length cartoon in Cinemascope, which opened at the St George's, York. Lady, a pedigree cocker spaniel, owned by a young married couple, was very happy in her comfortable home - until baby arrived on the scene, and she was neglected. When the family went on holiday she forgot her breeding and teamed up with The Tramp, a mongrel with a hectic history of nights out on the tiles. She finished up in the local lost dogs' home. By an heroic deed, The Tramp redeemed his past history, and after a sentimental climax, the Lady and The Tramp lived happily ever after.

25 years ago

Scarborough's 80ft-high Valley Bridge claimed yet another victim when a young woman fell to her death. She had not been named by police. In the previous 11 years 24 people had died in falls from the bridge. The previous year a plan to deter potential suicides with a £140,000 glass screen was discussed but no action was taken. After four people had fallen to their deaths in two months the previous year, Scarborough's outgoing mayor, Councillor Bill Woodroffe, said: "I hope an answer can be found but personally I doubt it." Seven years before a proposal to heighten the parapets with ironwork was rejected because it was felt that the appearance of the bridge would be spoiled. Councillors had taken the view that it was almost impossible to stop wilful suicides.

Updated: 16:32 Friday, January 20, 2006